164 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
THE ACADIAN PERIOD. 
A. FROM THE VIRGINIA PATENT, 1606, TO THE TREATY OF 
ST. GERMAIN, 1632. 
This period opened with not a single one of the present boundaries 
in existence, and (from our present point of view) the only inheritance 
from the preceding period was the presence on the maps of the St. Croix 
River. The English were in possession of Newfoundland, and of Vir- 
ginia, the latter without any recognized boundaries, while the French 
had taken possession of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and of the region 
between it and Massachusetts Bay. 
The first new boundary to be established in this period was the 
northern line of Virginia, fixed by a charter of King James I. in 1606, 
allowing the Plymouth Company to form settlements (100 miles square) 
between 38° and 45° of latitude. The charter reads thus :— 
we do grant and agree . . . . that they shall and may ec 
their said first Plantation, and Seat of their first Abode and Habitation, ata 
Place upon the said Coast of Virginia and America, where they shall think a 
and convenient, between eight and thirty Degrees of the said Latitude, and 
five and forty Degrees of the same Latitude. 
(Memorials of the English and French Camnsinrics, 550.) 
From this it is plain that the northern line of Virginia was fixed 
at the parallel of 45°, a fact which doubtless helped later to determine 
the location of the western boundary of Nova Scotia. Moreover, it 
completely ignored any rights of the French, for it overlapped the terri- 
tory claimed by the commission to DeMonts through the whole extent of 
40° to 45°. With two nations claiming the same territory, there could 
be but one result, and it speedily followed. The English began to fre- 
quent and even to settle the coast of Maine ; and when in 1613 the French 
established a mission at Mount Desert, they were promptly expelled 
by the English of Virginia, who considered the French as intruders 
within their limits, and who followed up this act by capturing Port 
Royal itself. France and England were at peace, but the English held 
that the discoveries of Cabot gave them a claim to the entire coast. 
The English destroyed and abandoned Port Royal, but the French on- 
tinued to linger in Acadia for many years without any attempt being 
made by France to enforce their claim to it. The English, however, 
took no steps to lay formal claim to Acadia until the year 1620, when 
King James J. gave a new patent to the Plymouth Company, under the 
